Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun criticized on Tuesday the government's failure to follow up on various development projects in Lebanon, including the completion of the Jal el-Dib bridge.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc's weekly meeting: “The bridge should have been completed by now.”

U.S. authorities said a medical helicopter has crashed in northern Illinois, killing all three people on board.

The Federal Aviation Administration reported the helicopter crashed Monday night while traveling from Rockford, near the Wisconsin border, to a hospital about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south in Mendota.

The army on Sunday deployed heavily in the Tripoli neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen and its entrances, ending the deployment of gunmen there, in the first phase of its plan to restore security in Tripoli, state-run National News Agency reported, after six people were killed and 40 others wounded on Sunday alone.

“The second phase will be the deployment of the army in Bab al-Tabbaneh and all the frontiers of the clashes,” NNA said.

The corpses of three Lebanese fighters killed in Syria's Tall Kalakh were retrieved from Syria on Sunday.

The corpses were returned to Lebanon through the Arida border-crossing in the North.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi announced on Thursday that the referendum on the constitutional decree will not be cancelled or postponed, calling on all parties and political figures in the country to join him in a dialogue session on Saturday at the presidential palace.

“The upcoming referendum will decide the constitutional amendment’s fate,” Morsi said in a speech he gave, adding that he will not insist on keeping this decree if an accord is reached with parties that oppose it.

Clashes renewed on Wednesday evening in the rival Tripoli neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen after a brief lull, as the army made contacts with the warring parties and fired back at the sources of gunfire, especially sniper fire.

An Energa-type rifle-launched grenade fell in the vicinity of al-Mallouleh area and was followed by an exchange of gunfire between Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh, LBCI television reported.

Tens of thousands of Egyptian demonstrators Tuesday encircled the presidential palace after riot police failed to keep them at bay with tear gas, in a growing crisis over President Mohamed Morsi's decree widening his powers.

The protesters cut through barbed wire a few hundred meters (yards) from the palace, prompting police to fire the tear gas before retreating, allowing demonstrators to reach the palace walls, Agence France Presse reported.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun rejected on Tuesday calls for a change in government and slammed the recent audio recordings revealing an arms deal being made between Mustaqbal MP Oqab Saqr and a member of the Syrian opposition.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc's weekly meeting: “Saqr must be put on trial.”

Two men were killed on Tuesday by sniper gunshots during clashes between Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh regions in the northern city of Tripoli.

“The bullets that killed Mohammed Ibrahim, 65, were shot from al-Qobbah region,” a military source told Agence France Press, adding that the army is now firing back at the sources of the gunshots.

Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad al-Maqdessi has defected from President Bashar Assad's regime, a Syrian opposition leader announced on Monday.

“Maqdessi left Damascus for Beirut and from there he headed to an unknown destination,” Jamal al-Wadi, the director of the office of revolutionary movement of the Syrian National Council, told Sky News Arabia television.